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BlackBerry Tour goes to OS 5.0 on Verizon, right on time
Actually, saying that this update happened "right on time" might be a bit of a stretch considering the wide variety of BlackBerrys across multiple carriers that have already been boosted to OS 5.0, but this does match up with previous rumors that we'd be seeing an upgrade for Verizon's Tour today, especially considering the announcement that users would have access to push-to-talk services this week. Indeed, Tour owners across the land are now being pushed BlackBerry OS 5.0.0.591 with improvements to Bluetooth, messaging, calling, and camera features, so even if you're not into PTT, it seems like a decent download, especially considering that it's painlessly available over the air. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Verizon's BlackBerry Tour getting push-to-talk capability tomorrow
When you think push-to-talk in the US, Sprint's Direct Connect service is still the very first thing that comes to mind -- but Verizon and AT&T both continue to soldier on with their own significantly less popular solutions to meet the needs of niche markets that might otherwise bail for iDEN. Big Red's stable is getting a little bigger this week on news that the BlackBerry Tour 9630 will magically be made PTT-compliant through the availability of a new app tomorrow that'll work with Verizon's existing PTT plans. As soon as the app's installed, the Tour's so-called convenience button on the side will be instantly transferred into a PTT button, at which point you'll be chirping it up with the best of 'em -- and even better, the service will be free for anyone activating both a "qualifying" voice plan and BlackBerry data plan, so odds are good you won't actually pay a dime for the new functionality. Separately, we're hearing that Verizon's Tour will be upgraded to BlackBerry OS 5.0 this evening, and push-to-talk is prominently listed as one of the new features added in the upgrade according to a GizmoFusion leak -- so odds are very good these two pieces of news are related. In other words, even if you're not interested in PTT capability in the slightest, you should stand to benefit a bit from it as the spoils of 5.0 filter down to you; now let's just add in a WebKit-based browser and we'll be good to go, right?
Skype mobile heading to Verizon smartphones on March 25th
We knew it was coming, and now we have a concrete date. Starting this Thursday, March 25th, Verizon Wireless customers with one of nine select smartphones (Motorola Droid and Devour, HTC Droid Eris, various BlackBerrys) and data plan will be able to use Skype over the 3G network. As we heard before, Skype-to-Skype calls will not affect your VZW minutes, and now you've got the option to use the app for cheaper international dialing using the mobile app. Full list of compatible devices after the break, a list we're hoping gets expanded in the not-so-distant future.
Lego-borne BlackBerry Tour probably still lacks WiFi
How do you know you've reached status as an internationally-recognized icon? When someone decides to make a Lego representation of you, that's when -- so our hats go off to you, BlackBerry Tour, for this distinguished accomplishment. Well-traveled Lego artist Nathan Sawaya was recently tapped to turn RIM's global CDMA traveler into a life-sized monolith of plastic bricks, though with an unusual twist: his unnamed patron wanted a working video display, too, which required some "trial and error" to integrate. It might not fit in a pocket, but we reckon you could still find a belt holster that could swallow this thing. Follow the break for video!
HDI headquarters walkthrough: details galore on the new face of in-home 3D
Call it an inexplicable fascination, or call it all-out geek lust over a screen with three digits in the "diagonal screen size" specification field -- either way, we had little choice but to shuttle over to HDI's nondescript Los Gatos, California headquarters in order to check out what even Steve Wozniak has been quoted as saying is the best 3D solution out there. While stationed on the west coast this week for GDC, we grabbed a camera and bolted down the 280 in order to get a sneak peek at the aforesaid firm, a tight-knit startup that currently has prototype displays in production and plans for far more. We've heard plenty through the grapevine, but we set out to get our questions answered directly, and possibly even provide some insight that has yet to be made available to the public thus far. For those unaware, HDI's flagship product is a planned 103-inch 3D HDTV that uses a proprietary technology in order to showcase content in the third dimension (or 2D, if you'd like). We sat down with Chris Stuart (Director of Technology) and Edmund Sandberg (Chief Technology Officer) in order to get an overview of the tech, set the story straight in regard to pricing and availability, and dig in a little deeper on its plans for distribution and expansion. We also plopped down in front of the company's prototype 97-inch set and a 46-inch 3D LCD that has remained mostly a myth up until now, and we've certainly got plenty to share in terms of impressions. If you're eager to learn more (and take a behind-the-scenes look at a television R&D lab), give that 'Read More' link a gentle press. %Gallery-88076%
Massively's tour of Dofus 2.0
Dofus is a game that's been around for a while now, first in its 1.0 form, and now as Dofus 2.0. It's a tactics-based game (many players have pointed out that it has a Final Fantasy feel about it), and while it's not as flashy as many of the graphics-heavy games on the market today, it's got a fair amount of substance to it. Dofus 2.0 offers a nice variety of combat areas, diverse and specialized classes, even crafting if that's your thing. Recently we were lucky enough to take a tour of Dofus 2.0 with Ankama's own Elissa Dukes. Follow along after the jump to see what we found.
Macworld 2010: TUAW adventures, day 2
Day 2 of Macworld 2010 brought lots more work and lots more fun -- we spent the day covering the show floor, livestreaming right here on the site, and networking and interviewing with all sorts of Mac fans at the crowded show. In the evening, we headed out to a few media receptions, and were lucky enough to take a brewery tour at the Thirsty Bear here in San Francisco before braving the oncoming rain back to the hotel to take the Muni back to the hotel. Click on to see what TUAW's been up to behind the scenes on the second day of Macworld.
Penny Arcade crew kicking off new book tour February 23
Between the thrice-weekly comic, the quad-monthly PATV episodes and the bi-yearly conventions, we find ourselves pretty saturated in Penny Arcade's artistic outings. Still, there are a few places in our lives where we could use some more of Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins' irreverent brand of jest -- like, for instance, our coffee table. That gap will soon be filled by the duo's new book, The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11½ Anniversary Edition -- a tome which covers the history of the comic, the Penny Arcade Expo and the annual Child's Play charity. The book is due out February 23 -- at which point its creators will kick off a national book tour. Check past the jump to see if they're making a stop in your town!
Intel swings 25nm factory doors open for a tour de fab
Intel and Micron's recent announcement that their collective superhero body, appropriately named IM Flash, is sampling 25nm flash chips has been accompanied with a whirlwind tour of their Utah production facilities for a few lucky journalists. PC Perspective bring us the atmospheric photo above, along with some videos, as they prance about one of the most hallowed (and cleanest) environments known to gadget lovers. Apart from the die shrink, the lads also discuss Intel's reputed plans for a G3 SSD refresh some time "later this year" with snappier controllers onboard, which apparently was echoed by Micron who also intend to pump out faster processors with their SSD products. While you wait for all that to happen, hit the source link to find out how and where the stuff that gets put inside SSDs is made.
RIM briefly confesses that BlackBerry Tour 9650 is on the way
We've got no shortage of evidence that there's an updated version of the Tour on the way, but we're dealing with pretty ironclad proof now that RIM itself has made mention of the so-called 9650 -- albeit briefly. A message posted on RIM's official Facebook account read "The BlackBerry Tour 9650 is coming! Check back for official news!" only to get pulled mere hours later, but the damage has been done -- it's definitely on the way, not to say we'd really doubted it before anyhow. Major features over the original Tour should be an optical pad (in place of that old-school trackball) and the addition of WiFi, making it very likely a solid upgrade for owners of nearly any CDMA BlackBerry. Alright, Storm2 owners, we'll cut you some slack -- but the rest of you, seriously, stay tuned.
Klipsch headquarters walkthrough: behind the scenes and between the ears
Every time trade shows such as CES and CEDIA open their doors, the collective masses are flooded with headphone after headphone, speaker after speaker. After awhile, one driver looks just as round as the next, and frankly, you start to take for granted what all goes into bringing the tunes we all dig to our ears, dens and underutilized kitchens. One of the mainstays in the audio industry opened their doors up to us this past weekend, and it didn't take much arm pulling to get us inside. We've generally found the design and sound qualities associated with Klipsch gear to be top-shelf, and we've struggled in the past to find too many gripes with the headphones and sound systems we've had the opportunity to review. Needless to say, we were quite curious to hear about (and see) what all goes into imagining, designing, testing and qualifying the 'buds and speakers that we've enjoyed for so many years, and if you share that same level of curiosity, join us after the break for the full walkthrough (and a few heretofore unreleased secrets, to boot).
A visual tour of LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood
Today marks the official NDA (non disclosure agreement) lift on Lord of the Rings Online's newest expansion: Siege of Mirkwood. The latest addition to virtual Middle-earth is set to release on December 1st, but many players have already been enjoying the new content on the Bullroarer test server these last few months. If you haven't had a chance to see Turbine's latest creation, check out our video tour of the expansion just after the jump below. Also, be sure to watch Massively for more coverage on Siege of Mirkwood from now to December 1st and beyond!
Nvidia CEO loves Apple, possesses mysterious alien device
Talk about burying the lead -- Shufflegazine did a piece on Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Hwang during a visit to Dubai recently, in which he talks about how much he and his family love their Macs, and Apple's machines add value, and in his house it's just "Mac, Mac, Mac," and OH MY GOD, what is that SITTING ON THE TABLE in front of him? OK, it's probably not definitely not an Apple tablet (yet), as there's no clear Apple logo on it, but man that's a nice looking tablet device, and even Engadget says they have no idea what it is. The thing is, this picture just appeared with Shufflegazine's piece, and while Hwang did go on and on about how much he loves Apple stuff (and yes, the two companies have a long history of sharing some hardware), there's not word one about that tablet or anything like it in the piece, no hint of any other hardware or partnership announcement. It could be a prototype, it could be another tablet we're just not recognizing, or yes, Hwang could have just thrown it down on the table during the interview, and Shufflegazine could have just completely missed it. [They didn't. -Ed.] Though if that last one is true, we have no idea how it happened. How do you cover Apple and their gadgets and avoid being drawn to that tablet. It's so... thin and well-designed. We'll be honest, if we were in the room, we might have licked it then and there to claim it as our own. Thanks to Nemanja for the tip.
Rejoice! BlackBerry support arrives on Celio REDFLY
We heard it'd be here in mid-Q4, and sure enough, it's here. And by "it," we mean "BlackBerry support for Celio's largely unwanted REDFLY Mobile Companion." Starting today, those looking for the Foleo's long lost cousin can snap up a REDFLY and download a free driver that adds compatibility for RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9000, Curve 8900 and Tour 9630. Granted, it's not like the BlackBerry web browser will be any less painful to use on an enlarged screen, but hey, whatever suits your fancy. [Via TestFreaks, thanks Nirckolas] %Gallery-77129%
BlackBerry Tour coming to US Cellular
A spec page unearthed on the carrier's website (complete with an image of a branded handset) tells us that US Cellular is going to end up carrying the BlackBerry Tour at some point, following Sprint's and Verizon's leads down the path of BES-compatible global roaming QWERTY joy. That's cool, but we don't have an inkling of a date or a price -- and with trackball-gate still fresh in Tour users' minds, it'll be hitting shelves with a bit of an image to overcome; then again, the alternatives are the ancient 8330 and 8830, so let's be honest -- it'll probably do alright for itself. [Via PhoneArena and Boy Genius Report]
Richard Knaak signing in the Midwest, Blizzard artists' forum at UC Irvine
Stuck in the Midwest and didn't have enough money to go see all the fun at BlizzCon 2009 this year? We've got a little (very little) bit of condolence for you: Richard Knaak, author of the Warcraft novels, is doing a signing tour this weekend around the Midwest in Missouri and Kansas. Blizzplanet has all of the dates and places -- he'll be in St. Joseph, MO on Friday (today), and then in Overland Park, KS and Lawrence, KS on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Not quite as fun as seeing Ozzy, but if you're out in the middle of the country, there's your chance at a little facetime with someone helping shape the WoW universe.Unfortunately, I'm stuck in Chicago, and -- oh wait! I moved to Los Angeles last weekend, which means I'm actually going to get to go to this artists' forum down at UC Irvine in California. Where I am (it's still a little weird to say that). The Laguna Art Museum (which has an ongoing relationship with Blizzard) will be hosting some of Blizzard's and other artists on October 1st, and they'll be talking (we presume) about creating art and other media for games and digital entertainment. Usually this is the part of the post where I'll ask you to send us pictures if you go, but what the heck -- I'm in the neighborhood (not really, but closer than Chicago), so maybe I'll get a chance to go and check it out for myself. See you there?
Verizon releases new Tour firmware, lets mayhem briefly reign before pulling
We know from discussions with tipsters (and from the simple fact that rumored phones take a century to get released) that Verizon tests the crap out of things -- generally speaking, anyway. Apparently that wasn't the case with the latest Tour firmware to see action, though, because 4.7.1.53 got pulled within a few hours of its release -- but not before wreaking havoc with at least a few users' phones, some to the point where Verizon went ahead and recommended a replacement unit. When you consider that BlackBerrys are probably among the most mission-critical devices in any carrier's lineup, this is a big deal; Verizon did the right thing by moving swiftly to pull the bunk build, but the question remains: how did such a quickly-detected problem make it through what was very likely an exhaustive internal testing phase?
Verizon says trackball issue is 'addressed' on Tour, no longer a problem
Sprint had told us in a statement that its BlackBerry Tours only had trackball issues on "early production" units, and now Verizon is telling us pretty much the same thing: Early on there was an issue with the trackball that affected a small percentage [of] the early production units -- far less than industry norms. The issue was detected early, addressed immediately and is no longer an issue. Returns on this device are some of the lowest among any of our smart phones. In other words, it sounds like new buyers (and anyone who's taken the plunge recently) should be fine, and Verizon's actually taking it to another level by boasting that the handset's now one of its most return-proof smartphones. That doesn't change the fact that the trackball's a little too recessed for our liking -- but at least it should stay functional.
BlackBerry Tour mired by trackball problems, Verizon losing patience?
You might remember our complaint that the Tour's trackball seemed a bit too recessed -- and while we're not ready to connect the dots just yet, this does seem rather convenient. Some research investment dude is reporting that the phone requires frequent trackball cleanings -- which users aren't taking to heart, assuming they know it needs to be done in the first place -- and a lack of maintenance quickly leads to stuck trackballs. From there, it doesn't take a wild imagination to believe that the phone is quickly sent back to the Sprint or Verizon shop from whence it came, and therein lies the problem: rumor has it that Sprint's seeing fully 50 percent of Tours brought back, and they're estimating that quality control measures totaling a 2 to 3 percent boost in production costs would bring that stat way down. A trackball that's too recessed seems like more of a design issue than a "quality control" one to us, but who knows -- maybe they can get it fixed without rearchitecting the whole phone. For what it's worth, we've gotten an official statement from Sprint: "We experienced a small percentage of early production BlackBerry Tour smartphones with trackball issues. As soon as the issue was identified, we worked closely with our partners at RIM to resolve the problem quickly. We recommend any customer experiencing issues with the trackball on their BlackBerry Tour smartphone visit a Sprint Service & Repair Center." The "early production" part of that leads us to believe this might already be fixed on the assembly line, in which case new buyers shouldn't feel bad about marching into the store -- Verizon's allegedly threatening to give more love for the Sholes if the problem doesn't go away, but considering that BlackBerrys and Android devices don't really play in the same space yet, that's a pretty meaningless threat as far as your average business user's concerned. [Via Electronista]
Video: BlackBerry support coming to REDFLY Mobile Companion, adds only marginal appeal
Listen, we feel your pain, we know you've been dying to find another use for your REDFLY Mobile Companion, and while we're not sure this is it, at least you've got another thing you can tell your friends when justifying the purchase. Celio Corp's announced it'll be bringing BlackBerry support to the Companion C8N and C7 as a free update in mid-Q4 of this year. It works via either physical cable or Bluetooth, and at this point supports Bold 9000, Curve 8900, and Tour 9630, with more phones promised as they're released. Crackberry's managed to obtain a video demonstration, which is after the break if you're interested. It's okay if you're not, we understand. Read - Press release Read - First look
